[aix thinkpad] IBM Thinkpad PowerSeries 820

Sun May 30 07:32:36 CDT 2004

Hi,

On Sun, May 30, 2004 at 10:52:12 +0200, Stefan Tibus wrote:
> Nice to see another german user here - where are you located?

Norden, Ostfriesland, Niedersachsen

> > Is there any documentation left anywhere for the box?  The links on the
> > website all seem to be dead.  Did somebody make local copies in time?

> Hmm, just took a look, the problem seems to be related with IBM
> restructuring their website (think the Sales Manual has moved, but for
> that one could go to www.rootvg.org - IBM Sales Manual - and search
> for them).

thanks, found a HTML version it.  But it's not too helpful.  Anyone ever
seen a service guide for that box?

> > I have a couple of questions:
> Well, I have an 860 here, without CD-ROM drive, no battery pack (so 
> none I could repair) and a floppy drive that only likes to read floppy 
> disks written by itself... (the floppy drive itself can be replaced 
> by PC notebook ones, don't know about the case and connection to the 
> notebook however).

Oh, without a CD-ROM drive I would have been lost anyway.  Now, I just
ran out of CD-Rs as it refuses to read CD-RWs.

> > 2. I'll get a ide-to-scsi-adapter rsn, so I'd like to know the pin
> >    assignment of the disk socket.  Or does the caddy contain more than
> >    just a mounting frame, wiring and the plug?

> I didn't open such a caddy yet, but wouldn't expect more. I suppose 
> the manual would mention the pin-out, but I have not yet seen any 
> manual of the PPC ThinkPads. Just wondering, did you get a notebook 
> IDE-SCSI adapter or a normal one? Regarding AIX I've learned that 
> some adapters will not work with it, but this can change with firmware 
> (made that experience with an ACARD AEC-7720UW).

I bought it on ebay and it's still on it way...  The picture looks like
one from ADTX (http://www.adtx.com/us/conv-SCSI-IDE.html).

Guess gsmexpress has more of these.  I've seen at least 4 units sold,
since I'm watching.  There's currently an auction ongoing, if anyone
else is interested
(http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11150&item=4134413060).

Anyway, without some documentation about the wiring I'm probably lost
there too.

> > 3. The website just mentions 10base PCMCIA adapters.  I just found a
> >    supplier for a 100baseT adapter, who claims that it works with the
> >    820 (the 10baseT adapter seems to be out of stock there).  Can that
> >    be true?  What would the part number of such an adapter be?   Does
> >    the firmware have network support (e.g. for remote boot)?

> Does he really refer to the PPC 820? Also, if it doesn't come with an 
> AIX driver, it has to be supported by AIX out of the box...am just 
> wondering how to figure out if there's a PCMCIA driver for a 100MBit 
> device...

Yes.  http://www.3klix.com/Scripts/prodView.asp?id=1148&cid=1798&ct=2 As
But as I'm probably going for Linux eventually and there's no firmware
support anyway...

On Sun, May 30, 2004 at 11:11:47 +0200, Stefan Tibus wrote:
> googling around I finally found a copy of the PDF for the RedBook here:
> http://www.watson.org/~arr/pdfs/hw/ibm_ppc_thinkpad_redbook.pdf
> and downloaded it immediately. Maybe Trevor can do the same and 
> make it available on his site. (The HTML is still available at IBM but 
> searching for it gives 0 results.)

I just get the frontpage of the HTML version, but thanks for the link
to the PDF.

Juergen
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